Kigo Partner Spotlight: Flat4Day  

Offering 35,000 properties around the world, Flat4Day (also known as Hemen Kiralik) is in the unique position of being the largest vacation rental network in Eastern European and Middle East regions. Headquartered in Istanbul, Turkey, it has presided over several years of growth and maturity of the short term and vacation rental industries in this area.

Having been in the region from almost the beginning of vacation rentals in Turkey, Flat4Day has had the ability to watch the growth and acceptance of the industry, from uncertainty to showcasing a culture that thrives on hospitality. Hosts in the area have become more sophisticated too, having grown from using paper calendars to software like Kigo Channel Manager.

We spoke with Deniz Ikizler, Senior Business Development Manager, Host Relations at Flat4Day, to learn more.

Audience

With over 300,000,000 members globally, Flat4Day is the largest vacation rental network of EMEA region, with a particularly strong presence to travelers in Turkey, where it has two local offices. With a five-language interface on its website and by phone, it also serves travelers from the Middle East, Russia, Asia, the U.S. and around the world.

Benefits

Part of the HomeAway Family, Flat4Day became successful by building a reputation for superior customer service, delivering interfaces and customer assistance to both hosts and guests in English, Russian, German Turkish and Arabic. Even if the local host does not speak a guest’s language, the Flat4Day team helps them communicate with each other to create a better travel experience.

Flat4Day offers a unique niche, not only providing in its language translation, but also specializing in helping to decode cultural differences between guests and hosts, most notably in its home area of Turkey but also elsewhere. For example, a Turkish host will invite the guests of the rental to a Turkish tea. While it may seem an unusual invitation from a stranger, this custom has a foundation in Turkish society’s inclination for showing hospitality to any guest they welcome into their homes.

Success on Flat4Day

Much like other channels, succeeding on Flat4Day requires a good product, as well as accurate, honest content, with photos that are authentic and that demonstrate the best reflection of the location.

Important amenities include:

• Heating and air conditioning and portable fans
• TV (with satellite if possible)
• Internet
• Basic appliances (dishwasher, refrigerator, washing machine, oven, etc.)
• Balcony
• Hair dryer
• Public parking
• Elevator if possible

In addition to basic amenities, it also strongly recommends a quick response to prospects and low booking rejection rates, as that demonstrates a better level of service to potential travelers. It’s also important to have a high level of communication with guests, making sure they have contact information, understand where and how to check in and know the rules of the rental. These elements also help hosts receive a high internal ranking on Flat4Day, which is not displayed to travelers but gives their properties a higher search ranking on the site.

Some of the site’s recently popular destinations are Istanbul, Budapest, Warsaw, Barcelona, Split, Prague, Moscow and St. Petersburg, Florence, Hvar and Dubai.

Connecting to Flat4Day with Kigo is an easy process. Get started by simply requesting your connection to Flat4Day from Kigo Channel Manager and share all properties that you wish to publish.

To publish your properties with Flat4Day, make sure your properties include the following:

• Name, category, capacity and full address with defined coordinates
• Number of bathrooms and bedrooms
• Accurate prices for the next six months (in $, € or £).
• At least ten photos
• Defined minimum stay length
• Minimum of three choices of amenities listed
• Apartment unit size is in M2

After requesting the connection, your property details will be synchronized automatically from your Kigo account. Within 48 hours, your properties will be online and you will be ready to receive bookings from Flat4Day!

Learn more about how to get started with Flat4Day through Kigo Channel Manager.